Enid Blyton - The Famous Five The Famous Five Buy all the Famous Five books with free worldwide shipping The Famous Five are a group of children who have the sort of adventures most kids dream about, in a world where ginger beer flows and ham rolls are a staple diet. Julian, Dick and Anne get together with their cousin George in the first adventure, Five On A Treasure Island. George is actually a girl who wants so desperately to be a boy she crops her hair and struts about doing boy things. She hates it when people call her by her correct name, Georgina. She has a dog called Timmyï¿½oh yes, and an island. Most kids just have a dog, but George's parents own Kirrin Island and let her run around on it as if it were her play-thing. Her parents are known to Julian, Dick and Anne as Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny. 1. Five On a Treasure Island (1942) The very first Famous Five adventure featuring Julian, Dick, Anne, and tomboy George along with her beloved dog, Timmy. There's a shipwreck off Kirrin Island, but where's the treasure? The Five are on the trail, looking for clues...

but they're not alone and time is running out. 2. Five Go Adventuring Again (1943) There's a thief at Kirrin Cottage! The Famous Five think they know who it is, but they need to prove it! Where can they find evidence? The discovery of an old map and very unusual hiding place is all they need to get to the bottom of this mystery and uncover the true culprit! 4. Five Go To Smuggler's Top (1945) Can there still be smugglers at Smuggler's Top? The Famous Five go to stay at the large old house, and discover lots of brilliant hiding places, even underground tunnels! Then they catch people signalling out to seaï¿½who are they? 6. Five On Kirrin Island Again (1947) What is Uncle Quentin up to, all alone on Kirrin Island? He won't let anyone visit, not even George and the rest of the famous Five. But Uncle Quentin isn't really alone on the islandï¿½someone is watching his every move. 7. Five Go Off to Camp (1948) Spook trains in the middle of the night!

And they seem to vanish into thin airï¿½but where do they go? The Famous Five are on to it. But the discovery of an unusual underground tunnel system, and a train-service, has them puzzled. If they follow the tracks, will they solve the mystery? 8. Five Get Into Trouble (1949) The Famous Five are distraught! Dick has been kidnappedï¿½mistaken for somebody else! The gang finally track him downï¿½to a lonely, abandoned houseï¿½but then they too are seized and held captive. How will the intrepid Five get themselves out of this mess? 9. Five Fall Into Adventure (1950) Julian, Dick and Anne are really worriedï¿½George and her devoted Timmy have just disappeared! Not only that, somebody has broken in to Kirrin Cottage. Could there be a connection? The Famous Five think so, but it's going to be tough getting to the bottom of this mystery. 10. Five On a Hike Together (1951) Dick is puzzled when he's woken by a light flashing through his window. Is someone trying to send him a coded message?

And when the Famous Five hear of an escaped convict in the area, they are on red alert. The police won't help, so the Five have no choice but to solve the mystery alone. 11. Five Have a Wonderful Time (1952) The Famous Five are having a brilliant timeï¿½on holiday in horse-drawn caravansï¿½and they've discovered a ruined castle nearby! The castle looked deserted from a distance, but is that a face at the window? Or is it a trick of the light? Just who is hiding in the castle? 13. Five Go to Mystery Moor (1954) Mystery Moor is aptly named, as the Five discover! There's something dangerous out there, but gang need help to find out what it is. The travellers camped on the moor are unfriendly, so the Famous Five have no other choice but to risk the treacherous mists and follow the trail. 14. Five Have Plenty of Fun (1955) George is not pleased when Berta, a spoilt American girl, turns up at Kirrin Cottage in the middle of the night dressed in disguise! But George hasn't got time to be jealous.

Berta is in hiding from kidnappers, and she needs help. The Famous Five must risk danger to help out this stranger. 15. Five On a Secret Trail (1956) Camping again! This time the Five have pitched their tent near an old ruined cottage, which looks as though it's been abandoned for years. When Anne hears strange noises at night the others don't believe her...until they see ghostly lights. Could the cottage be haunted? 16. Five Go to Billycock Hill (1957) Hurrah! It's holiday time, and the Famous Five are spending it at Billycock Hill. Most exciting of all, they've made a new friendï¿½a real pilot! But when he disappears with top secret equipment, the Five are puzzled. Could their new friend be a spy? 17. Five Get Into a Fix (1958) The Famous Five are having lots of fun in the snow! But who is living in the mysterious house near the chalet they're staying in? The caretaker says nobody has lived there for years, but the Five are sure they've seen a terrified, haunted face at one of the windows. 18.

Five on Finniston Farm (1960) There is a ruined castle on Finniston Farm, but only the dungeons remain and no one knows where they are! The Famous Five are determined to find them, and whatever else is hidden inside, but someone else wants to find out too. Can the Five get there first? 19. Five Go to Demon's Rocks (1961) The Five have heard the stories about treasure on Demon's Rocks, but they never thought they were really true! When they discover a very old, valuable gold coin, the myth becomes real. Who does the treasure belong to? The gang are determined to find out...but so is someone else. The Famous Five Books By Enid Blyton. Complete Book List christmas stories The Famous Five Books The Famous Five books are a series of 21 books for children written by English author Enid Blyton between 1942 and 1963. Enid Blyton wrote many, many books for children but The Famous Five is her most popular and best-known series. I have a really soft spot for The Famous Five books because they're very much responsible for kick-starting my love of reading. I even remember exactly when this happened!

I was not-quite six years old and my mum was reading one of the books to my sister and I before bed. The story was so exciting I couldn't wait until the next night to hear another chapter so, after Mum had said 'good night' to us, I sneaked the light back on and kept reading. The book was a bit hard for me to read by myself but I really wanted to know what happened next! About The Famous Five Books The Famous Five are a group of four children who, together with Timmy the dog, have exciting adventures together. Julian, Dick and Anne are siblings who are often sent to stay with their aunt and uncle at their home on Kirrin Island in Cornwall during the school holidays. There they team up with their tomboy cousin, George - who hates to be called by her real name, Georgina - and George's dog, Timmy. Enid Blyton only ever intended to write about six or eight Famous Five books in the series but they sold so well that she went on to write 21 full-length novels. Together the books had sold over 6 million copies by the end of 1953 and nearly all of them have been adapted for television over the years.

These days, the books sell about two million copies each year, making them one of the biggest-selling series for children ever written. Most libraries have copies of The Famous Five books but, if you'd like to buy one or a couple, the books are all shown below. I'd recommend reading these aloud to 5-8-year-olds. Independent readers aged from about 8-9-years-old would enjoy them on their own. The Famous Five Series Enid Blyton - The Famous Five. Enid Blyton is both the most prolific and fastest writer...EVER! Enid Blyton. A Noddy Puppet. The most prolific and fastest writer… EVER! PROLIFIC: During her lifetime Enid Blyton wrote over seven hundred and fifty books and countless magazine articles. FAST: Professor Peter McKellar, a New Zealander, contacted Enid Blyton requesting information on her imaginary processes for a psychological study he was pursuing at Aberdeen University. She happily obliged and the two of them corresponded for a number of years. In one letter, dated 28th.January 1955, Enid Blyton writes: "…I have just finished a book called River of Adventure.

I began it on Monday and finished this afternoon (Friday). It is 60,000 words long and the writing flowed like its title." 60,000 words in five days! That is an average of 12,000 words a day. No other writer has ever been able to write as fast as that. FAST AND PROLIFIC: From the beginning of 1951 until the end of 1954 Enid Blyton wrote a total of one hundred and ninety-two books. That is almost a book per week for four years. It seems that Enid Blyton was quite a complex character with many very extraordinary abilities. To get the complete picture of I recommend: 'Enid Blyton: The Biography' written by Barbara Stoney. All the above facts and many more can be found in this book. I know how difficult it is to write an Enid Blyton adventure story because I have written The Famous Five: The Final Adventure. If you would like to read this full length Famous Five adventure story, on-line for free, please click on this 'THE FINAL ADVENTURE' button: My Favourite Enid Blyton Famous Five Books.

FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND. Julian, Dick and Anne meet their cousin George and Timmy the dog for the very first time. The five row across to Kirren Island, a place that contains all the ingredients for a magnificent adventure: a ruined castle, a sunken wreck of an old sailing ship and hidden treasure. This book is a great introduction to the many adventures of: The Famous Five. FIVE GO TO SMUGGLERS TOP. Castaway Hill stands just off the coast of southern Cornwall, surrounded by a treacherous marsh and swirling mists. Directly on top of this hill straddles an imposing, giant, gothic, stone building: 'Smuggler's Top'. A narrow, winding causeway is the only means of access. Take one step on either side and be sucked down by the slimy mud to a certain death. A perfect location selected by Enid Blyton for this fourth adventure of The Famous Five. FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER. Dick is sleeping rough in an old barn. Outside is wet and windy. Someone knocks on the window and whispers hoarsely "Dick. Dick. Two trees. Gloomy water. Saucy Jane.

And Maggie knows." A piece of paper, containing a roughly scribbled map, flutters to the floor. Find out how The Famous Five decipher this strange message. An Enid Blyton masterpiece. FIVE GO TO MYSTERY MOOR. It is the dead of night. The Famous Five are camping on Mystery Moor. A low flying aircraft is circling above. Then something extraordinary happens. An object falls with a thud, bounces and lands not far from Julian. Thud, thud, thud! Anne gives a squeal. "Are they trying to bomb us or something?" Find out by reading this magnificent Famous Five adventure. FIVE RUN AWAY TOGETHER. Mr. and Mrs. Stick and their nasty son, Edgar: 'The Family From Hell'. A child's chilling midnight scream. Flash...Flash...Flash: A light signalling in the dead of night from a boat way out at sea. A hidden cave and a kidnap. All this adds up to another runaway Famous Five adventure story. FIVE GO DOWN TO SEA. The Famous Five are staying at Tremannon Farm, close to the rocky, Cornish coastline.

Why does the giant of a farmer, Mr Penruthlan, wander the countyside during the darkest hours of the night? Meet 'The Barnies': strolling players featuring 'Clopper' the hilarious horse, who hides a sinister secret. Is the light, that burns atop a ruined tower on dark, stormy nights, intended to lure ships onto the jagged rocks below? Another fast moving Famous Five adventure. Don't forget, if you want to read The Famous Five: The Final Adventure a full length Famous Five adventure written by Hollis Brown click here: Enid Blyton Fact. Happy Birthday Famous Five! Enid Blyton wrote the first Famous Five adventure in 1942. That makes The Famous Five 71 years old this year. This first adventure was called: Five on a Treasure Island and it is still read by thousands of children every year. Regards Enid Blyton - The Famous Five Meet the characters Article by Keith Robinson (March 15, 2006) The Famous Five are four decidedly upper-class children with a mongrel dog who solve mysteries and get tangled up with smugglers and other criminals.

They want nothing more than to have a great time strolling about the countryside and having picnics, but these adventures just keep coming along and getting in the way. Unlike the Secret Seven and the Five Find-Outers, the Famous Five get about a bit—usually to the moors, the countryside, Cornish villages and the like. The most remarkable thing about them is possibly that they're allowed to go all the country on their own despite being aged between eleven and thirteen! The eldest of the gang is Julian, with George and Dick next, and then Anne. Julian's twelve in Five on a Treasure Island, the first in the series, and when talking about George he says, "So she's eleven—a year younger than I am—same age as you, Dick—and a year older than you, Anne." Nice of him to point that out so clearly. In the third book, Five Run Away Together, it's noted that they're all a year older since their last adventure on Kirrin Island, a year before. Beyond that, as far as I am aware their ages are inexplicably frozen in time—otherwise they'd be well into their twenties before the end of the series.

Julian is a strange character, someone that young readers seem to aspire to, and one that older readers think is a pompous ass. There are is a strong element of a 1940s-style chivalry in his character, which today is seen simply as condescending. For example, in Five on a Hike Together they're all arguing about where to sleep for the night. George insists she'll be fine in a barn with the boys, but Julian won't have it. "You know quite well," he says, "that if you ever go against the orders of the chief—that's me, my girl, in case you didn't know it—you won't come out with us again. You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you're a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of." He frequently tells the girls they can't do something simply on the basis that they're girls. Of course, Anne accepts his orders readily, being the sort of girl that Julian believes all girls should be like! And that's Julian all over—demanding, domineering, always in charge... True, he is the eldest of the group, but only by a year.

Yet he acts as though he's at least three or four years older than the rest, and certainly older than the young age of thirteen as he's supposed to be throughout the series. Indeed, he acts so stern and grown-up that nasty adult characters are frequently struck speechless. The Stick Family in Five Run Away Together are a prime example of this; Julian's clever tongue leaves Ma and Pa Stick bewildered and a little afraid of the tall boy with the determined face... Dick was actually my favorite character when I was younger, perhaps because he seemed more my age at the time. (Julian seemed years older, despite being only a year older than Dick.) In the first book, Dick pretty much takes a back seat for the most part, letting the more interesting characters of Julian and George develop, and Anne—the weedy one—to be teased. But in later books Dick takes a more active role, constantly jumping in and backing up Julian like any good younger brother should! He shows himself to be unafraid of anything that comes along, no matter how scary the situation. I particularly remember Five on a Hike Together when he sleeps in a barn overnight, alone, with a storm lashing the windows.

Then a hard-looking face appears at the window and whispers an urgent message. I remember being creeped out by the whole situation and admired Dick for holding it together so well. He's also the character most likely to joke around and tease the others—particuarly George over her being a boy. George, or Georgina, is arguably the most interesting character of the four, and certainly the most popular as far as fans are concerned. She's feisty, obstinate, brave, strong-willed as well as strong physically, an excellent swimmer and impressive in a small rowing boat, loyal as can be, and quite foolish at times. She's also head-over-heels in love with her dog, Timmy, and this sometimes causes her to make the most ridiculous decisions in the face of danger, such as jumping between her beloved pet and a pack of other dogs when they threaten to tear Timmy apart. Brave—but oh so foolish! Also, most of George's tempers are sparked off by situations concerning Timmy; she often refuses to like people simply because they don't care for dogs in general. Yes, her loyalty to Timmy is endearing, but sometimes she loses sight of reality.

What with people being rude to Timmy, and others waltzing about her island without permission, it's a wonder she doesn't blow a gasket. But the really annoying thing about George is her constant battle to prove she's "as good as any boy," to the point that she dresses as one, cuts her hair short, and calls herself George rather than Georgina. To all intents and purposes she is a boy, at least at first glance, and it pleases her no end when strangers mistake her for one. And the flipside of that, of course, is that she takes an instant dislike to anyone who calls her Georgina and tells her she's just like a girl. All these character traits, good and bad, make her one of the most consistently interesting personalities in Enid Blyton's career—so it's not surprising to learn that Blyton supposedly based George's character on herself! Anne is a wimp. She's domesticated, loves setting up home (while camping out in caves and on the moors), likes to do all the cooking and washing up, and generally lives to serve others.

She's a regular Susie Homemaker, everything a man in the forties and fifties wanted in a woman, and everything that women sneer at today! But more than that, Anne hates adventures. She quakes with fear whenever there's a sniff of anything ominous, and absolutely can't understand how George can be so brave, so like a boy when in fact she's just a girl. There are many characters, in many other series, that are like Anne, but Anne is perhaps the crï¿½me de la crï¿½me of Helpless Pathetic Girls, the one who other like-minded girls look to as a model of wimpiness. But Anne thankfully does have a few redeeming features. She's sweet and loyal, can be quite brave sometimes, and even has moments where she rears up like a tiger and puts little boys in their place (Five Have a Mystery to Solve). When all said and done, and despite earlier comments about her being a wimp, she's really a very nice girl and the sort of person you'd hope your own daughter to turn out like one day (unlike George, who would get on my last nerve).

Timmy is just a dog, and a mongrel at that—but what a dog! Lassie eat your heart out. Whereas Lassie would go and fetch help to rescue the imprisoned children, Timmy would go several steps farther and make the villains tie each other up and lock themselves in a room, and then recover the stolen plans, find a lost cave full of treasure, and finally go off to the police station to ask for CID rather than bother with the useless bobby on the front desk. Timmy is described as a brown mongrel with an unusually long tail and loving brown eyes, although in the 1970s TV series he mysteriously transmogrified into a Welsh collie, or border collie as they're called in the USA. He stuck in this guise for a long time afterwards, his distinctive black and white fur instantly recognizable from afar. I grew up with this image of Timmy, and assumed the original Eileen Soper artwork was wrong, but now I've come to terms with the fact that Timmy really is quite a funny looking thing. Loyal and strong, big and powerful, but still funny looking.

Copyright © 2004-2017 EnidBlyton.net Five on a Treasure Island : Enid Blyton : 9781444928402 Five on a Treasure Island Hardback By (author) Enid Blyton , Illustrated by Babette Cole Share US$10.69 US$15.98 You save US$5.29 Free delivery worldwide Add to basket Add to wishlist Description Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series. In their first adventure, the Famous Five find a shipwreck off Kirrin Island. But where is the treasure? The Famous Five are on the trail, looking for clues, but they're not alone. Someone else has got the same idea! Time is running out for the Famous Five - who will follow the clues and get to the treasure first? A beautiful full-colour gift edition featuring the text from the Classic edition, Quentin Blake's popular cover and brand new illustrations by Babette Cole.

show more Product details 146 x 222 x 20mm | 448g Publication date Full colour by Babette Cole ISBN10 The Famous Five (TV Series 1978–1979) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Modern adaptation of Enid Blyton's adventure stories about Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog. Stars: Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

a list of 2127 titles created 15 May 2014 a list of 30 titles created 07 Jun 2014 a list of 44 titles created 18 Jan 2015 a list of 441 titles created 28 Oct 2015 a list of 200 titles created 5 months ago Title: The Famous Five (1978–1979) 7.5/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. The Famous Five (TV Series 1995) Family Based on the best selling books by popular children's author Enid Blyton; when Julian, Dick and Anne are sent to live with their Aunt and uncle in the English countryside they clash with ... See full summary » Stars: Jemima Rooper, Marco Williamson, Paul Child The Famous Five Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy (the dog) spend their vacation together, while George's dad (Professor Quentin ) is staying on a nearby island where he works on a ...

See full summary » Director: Mike Marzuk The five friends George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy the dog, go for the first time together on holiday. Without parents they set out on a bike ride that takes them into the legendary Cat ... See full summary » Director: Mike Marzuk After the enforced absence of their father, three children move with their mother to Yorkshire, where during their adventures they attempt to discover the reason for his disappearance. Director: Lionel Jeffries The Caped Crusader battles evildoers in Gotham City in a bombastic 1960s parody of the comic book hero's exploits. Stars: Adam West, Burt Ward, Alan Napier In this series, we witness the adventures of Tintin, a young reporter and his faithful dog, Snowy, as they travel around the world on adventures. Stars: Colin O'Meara, Thierry Wermuth, Christian Pellissier 3 July 1978 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Love the books, love this show!

29 May 2010 | by TheLittleSongbird (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews At 18, I am a huge Enid Blyton fan. I have read a lot of her books, and have loved them to death. They are funny, charming and have a real sense of innocence and enchantment about them. That said, I absolutely love this show, it maintains all of the charm of the books and is just a lot of fun to watch. It is pleasant to look at, with crisp photography and the scenery is often gorgeous. The music is wonderful as well, the theme song is great to sing along to and the background music is beautiful, adventurous and haunting. The writing is touching and funny constantly, and the story lines are faithful in structure to the books and still have their sense of adventure and fun. Everybody acting wise are well cast, from lead down to supporting. Julian is still intelligent, Dick is gentle, Anne is actually more likable than she is in the books and George is suitably tomboy-ish. Aunt Fanny is an inspiring mother figure and Professor Kirren is fussy, strict yet caring and intelligent.

The real star though is Toddy the dog as Timmy, I loved Timmy in the books, I adored him here, he is so cute and likable not to mention well trained as well. Overall, if you love Enid Blyton and love the Famous Five, I think you will like/love this. 10/10 Bethany Cox 7 of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes 1000+ images about Enid Blyton - The Famous Five on Pinterest | Treasure island, Islands and Farms Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Enid Blyton - The Famous Five The Famous Five is the name of a series of children's novels written by English author Enid Blyton. The novels feature the adventures of a group of young children – Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina (George) – and their dog Timmy. The stories always take place in the children's school holidays after they have returned from their respective boarding schools. Each time they meet they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book.

100 Pins41 Followers Enid Blyton's Famous Five - Telegraph Book Reviews Enid Blyton's Famous Five Enid Blyton's 70 year old classics are being revamped with modern dialogue. Lorna Bradbury asks how well they hold up when so much more than our language has changed Enid Blyton and her two daughters By Lorna Bradbury 5:04PM BST 17 Sep 2010 Enid Blyton once described herself as “a sightseer, a reporter, an interpreter”, the viewer of “a private cinema screen inside my head”. And this peculiarly guileless way of working, coupled with her remarkable speed – she wrote more than 600 children’s books, and claimed to be able to produce up to 10,000 words a day with her typewriter balanced precariously on her knee – gets to the heart of how we feel about her. Though adults tend to find her books unoriginal and sloppily written, not to mention all the other complaints that have been heaped on Blyton over the past 20 years, from racism and sexism to snobbery, children keep coming back to her.

I can speak from personal experience on this last point, as I am reading the new editions of the Famous Five books, published last month, to my five-year-old daughter – and she is hooked. She loves these adventures with burglars and smugglers, in which the adults are absent often for days on end. As a correct kind of girl with an eye for the rules, she likes the satisfying way in which good behaviour always triumphs. Most surprisingly, since they certainly don’t raise much of a smile from me, she finds the books very funny. If Blyton’s stories seem formulaic to adults, this is precisely why children find them so appealing. Her books may not be well written, they may not have properly fleshed out characters, and they may reflect the accepted views of the world in which Blyton herself grew up, but their pacy, dialogue-driven plots – with a juicy cliffhanger placed tantalisingly at the end of each chapter – continue to have a remarkable appeal. Blyton was the 13th most borrowed author from British libraries in 2008-9, and her worldwide sales total more than £500 million.

Related Articles Lashings of nostalgic cheer 05 Nov 2012 It is striking that readers’ love/hate relationship with Blyton existed right from the start. From the late Thirties, she was banned on the BBC on grounds of mediocrity. This was only relaxed 30 years later when she finally appeared on Woman’s Hour. In the Fifties and Sixties, she continued to be seen by the establishment as second-rate and, despite her popularity and phenomenal sales, her books were often not stocked by public libraries. (Most of the disapproval centred around Noddy , who was seen as joyless, snivelling and pious.) There was a moment of rehabilitation in the mid-Seventies when Barbara Stoney’s biography appeared (Blyton died in 1968), but then the Blyton-bashing continued apace, focusing on the outdated views her books conveyed. It reached a crescendo in the late Eighties, when the golliwogs were erased. And then several years ago, some the names were modernised.

That’s when Dick and Fanny in The Faraway Tree books became Rick and Frannie, and the teacher Dame Slap became the loud-mouthed Dame Snap – to the dismay of many Blyton fans. But the Famous Five books have now undergone their most extensive reworking to date, with changes made throughout the texts. The aim of the project, the publisher Hodder says, is to bring the books, the first of which was originally published in 1942, to “a new generation” of readers by removing the dated language, especially in the dialogue. To this end the books have been revised line by line, leaving the plots intact but cutting many of the old-fashioned expressions, such as “golly”, “rather” and “awfully”, and replacing numerous other words: “Mother” and “Daddy” with “Mum” and “Dad”, “bathing” with “swimming”, “jersey” with “jumper” and so on. There are photographs of actors posing as Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog on the covers, rather than the original illustrations by Eileen A Soper , whose line drawings previously also brought the key incidents of the books to life within the pages.

(The old editions are still available for more traditionally minded readers.) It is a fascinating project that is guided, Hodder says, by the fact that the Famous Five books have come to appeal more to parents than to their children – a slightly convoluted claim, which ignores the fact that it is the children, as much as the parents trying to recover something of their own childhoods, who have driven Blyton’s continued presence in the market. If sales had been down solely to the adults, Blyton would have been banished long ago. Hodder claims that it has tried to make the books “timeless, rather than 21st century”, and though a timeless quality of language could never be attainable, one can see what they are driving at. Adult readers might enjoy Blyton for the period flavour, but children have a more immediate response to what they are reading, throwing themselves into the action and projecting themselves onto the characters – whether, like my daughter, by empathising with Anne and being in awe of George or, like Blyton’s granddaughter Sophie Smallwood, who has written a note at the front of the new editions, by falling in love with Timmy because things seem safer when he is around.

If most of the changes are modest, designed to remove what might be jarring to a modern reader and to play down the cultural references to upper-middle-class life in the Thirties, some do go beyond this. In the first book, Five on a Treasure Island, for example, the presentation of the marriage between Julian, Dick and Anne’s parents has been tweaked so it seems more like a marriage of equals. So to take a passage from the first page, the lines: “‘Well, this time Daddy wants me to go to Scotland with him,’ said Mother. ‘All by ourselves!’” has been changed to: “‘Well, this time Dad and I have planned to go to Scotland,’ said Mum. ‘Just the two of us!’” But this kind of editing has not been carried out systematically. The relationship between George’s parents, for example, has not been altered. Uncle Quentin is still grumpy and absent for long stretches in his study, while Aunt Fanny oversees the running of the household. And though Fanny and Dick’s names haven’t been revised, as they were in The Faraway Tree books, the circus boy Nobby in book five has been rechristened Ned.

The characterisation of George as a tomboy remains (how could it not?), yet there have been numerous small changes and cuts made to the text to make it more gender neutral. So the references to George wanting to look like a boy have been cut back – a physical description of her “very short curly hair” in the first book has been cut of the additional phrase, “almost as short as a boy’s”. And Anne’s preference for playing with dolls has, in the first book, been replaced with a love of teddies, and the reference, in the second book, to her Christmas present, “a new doll – with eyes that shut! I shall call her Betsy-May”, has been cut altogether. Do girls – and boys, for that matter – not play with dolls any more? The references to “tinkers” have been changed to “travellers” – which might be a more accepted term but is still slightly baffling to a child of today. The project has drawn criticism from the Enid Blyton Society , which has said it is against “unnecessary changes just for the sake of it, from adults who underestimate the intelligence of children”.

And some of the changes that have been made are undeniably on the edge of what might be deemed necessary. Hodder is treading a fine line, and risks making a nonsense of these classics by recasting the plots in up-to-date language, as everything about the books is so dated. One might struggle to guess, reading them now, that the first four books were published during the Second World War – there are spies, for example, but no explicit references to Germany or to the war – but they are impossible to separate from their time. The idea of condemning a child as “naughty”, “rude” and “haughty”, as George’s mother does of her, rather than trying to understand why she might be feeling like this, is at odds with a modern sensibility. As is the idea of a father absenting himself from the running of the household, except when a child needs to be reprimanded, as Uncle Quentin does, or the fact that the children are allowed to go off by themselves for long stretches. So much of what happens reminds us of a world that has long ceased to be. If you took what Blyton’s editors are attempting to its logical conclusion, there would be nothing left of her books at all.

They would simply collapse. But we should be reassured that none of this will happen, and that Blyton will continue to engross fresh generations of children. Despite the numerous Famous Five sequels, written by Claude Voilier and Mary Danby, there is no modern equivalent to the series. And as long as this remains the case, children will be thrilled by Blyton’s primitive stories, whatever modern editors do to them. We might not like it, but her continued appeal proves that children like their stories to be simple and paced chapter by chapter with cliffhangers – and this is something the publishing world might do well to acknowledge. * The first 10 of the new Famous Five editions are available from Hodder at £4.99 each. Two Famous Five stories, Five on a Treasure Island and Five Have a Mystery to Solve, are now available on DVD from the BFI at £17.99 each

Question: What is the name of the dog in Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' books?
Answer: TIMMY